Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #190: Pride (2014).

It's 1984. Margaret Thatcher's Britain, and the miners' strike has just started. Gay rights activist Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) realises this is taking the social pressure and focus off the LGBT community and onto the beleaguered miners, whose plight he recognises. After then organising a successful fundraiser for them, he establishes Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, a ragtag activist group whom a large majority of miners are, of course, very reluctant to associate with (and several of the gays reciprocate that reluctance). But they press on regardless, and after Ashton and his crew personally appeal to a group of miners with a presentation emphasising solidarity, their help is accepted and LGSM's mission takes off.

For me, this is half a great film but half a very misjudged one. Director Matthew Warchus and writer Stephen Beresford (no relation to Bruce) bring an authentic touch to recreating the era and its moods, and very patiently and tenderly explore the complex character arcs and dynamics here. Warchus also draws engaging performances from all his cast, particularly American Schnetzer (doing a flawless English accent) and Imelda Staunton (as strike committee member Hefina Headon). But aesthetically, it consistently feels much too conventional and polished for a dramatization of leftist radicals like this, and that approach just saps it of a great deal of zest and sincerity for me. Had Warchus adopted a more anarchistic technical style for it, like a narrative Michael Moore film, I think he would've created something more reflecting and saluting these out-and-proud, real-life heroes.

Nonetheless, its heart is unmistakable right to the uplifting climax, and there's a pumping '80s soundtrack. It just, IMO, required a more assertive and vibrant visualisation.